Simplicity matters

I had an interesting experience this morning at the natural market while shopping for this month's DL recipe testing. (Yes, I make, and we test, every recipe that appears in the mag—it's such a great job!) It's usually easy to find what I need, but this time there were a few items on my list that the store didn't stock. I had to go to three stores, in fact, to finish up the list. That gave me pause, because of course, nobody out there is going to want to go through that much trouble to make one or more of our recipes. Thanks to reader surveys, we've heard that one priority when making a DL recipe is that ingredients are accessible and easy to find.

But here's the dilemma: At DL, we hope to be on the cutting edge of all things healthy and natural, informing our readers of the best that's out there for natural living, including cool or up-and-coming healthy ingredients—AND, of course, we want to give tried and true, whole-food items their well-deserved due. So I want our recipes to strike a balance between using ingredients that you may be familiar and comfortable with (think whole-wheat flour, rolled oats, honey, lettuce) and introducing you to items that may be new to you but that are well worth checking out (such as agave nectar, quinoa, chestnut flour, broccoli rabe, stevia). So here's where you come in: What do YOU think? I would love to know what balance is right.